Roller blinds for Bantry Bay’s big glass

Roller blinds are the most common blind fitted along this stretch of the Atlantic seaboard, and for good reason — they suit almost any room, they’re easy to keep clean, and the fabric choice does most of the work. The real question on a Bantry Bay terrace is rarely “roller or not,” it’s which fabric, and whether one blind is enough for glass that spends half the day facing straight into the sunset.

Fabric — the decision that matters

• Blockout — total light stop, for bedrooms, nurseries and media rooms. It also acts as an extra insulating layer, useful on the large single panes many Bantry Bay apartments are built around.
• Sunscreen (3–10% openness) — a mesh weave that cuts glare and UV while keeping the view out. Lower openness blocks more heat and glare but shows less view; 3–5% is the standard choice for view-preserving sun control on west-facing panes here. Note the trade-off: sunscreen gives daytime privacy, but reverses at night once the lights are on inside.
• Light-filtering / translucent — softens the light and gives full privacy without full blockout, a middle ground for living areas.

Double roller (day/night combo)

A blockout and a sunscreen fabric on one bracket is the practical answer for a bedroom that also has a sea view worth keeping — sunscreen up during the day, blockout down at night, without two separate blinds fighting for the same window.

Fit, finish and salt air

Chain control needs a wall tensioner as standard practice for child safety; spring-assist and motorised options are both available, and motorisation removes the chain question entirely. Because the swell breaks close beneath this cliff, we specify powder-coated aluminium tubes and brackets as standard rather than an upgrade — cheap hardware corrodes fast this close to the water. Single blinds run to roughly 3m of fabric width before a join line or a linked, motorised pair becomes the better answer.